Peer support vital in overcoming addictions

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, November 5, 2008

STAFF WRITER

RIDGEFIELD - Reaching out with a helping hand is the way young people in Fairfield County have helped each other fight alcohol and drug addictions.

Whether at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or with a personal phone call or visit, peer-to-peer support has a proven track record of success, said Donna Aligata, executive director of Connecticut Turning to Youth and Families.

She will be one of seven panelist speaking at the free program "Celebrating Recovery: The Power of Positive Peer Support Overcoming Alcohol and Drug Problems" Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Ridgefield Playhouse.

Aligata, a nurse who worked in drug and alcohol clinics for 34 years, said, "We believe that on a grass-roots level we can build a system of support. This program is to make young adults feel safe to come out and ask for help."

Two films produced and directed by Greg Williams, 25, of Newtown, who overcame drug and alcohol problems, will be shown. Both are about peer support as a model for recovery.

"After getting sober at 17, I got to witness hundreds of other young people succeed in recovery from drugs and alcohol, and then got to watch them take their personal experience and turn it around to offer recovery support to their peers," Williams said.

"I was inspired, and I knew that if I could tell their stories on video, others could see, hear and feel the power of peer support," he said.

Williams' film "Central Pride" is about the peer-to-peer recovery program at Central High School in Bridgeport. Started four years ago with just three students, it now has more than 300 participants who help each other live drug and alcohol free.

Ridgefield addiction counselor Liz Jorgensen will be another panelist.

"In my 23 years of experience, I have found that positive peer support is the difference between people staying sober and drug free and those who chronically relapse or die from the disease," she said.

Jorgensen said the greater Danbury area has "the largest" community of young adults in the state who support each other this way.

"They take care of each other, drive each other to meetings, will take in another person who has been kicked out of their home, and work to get them back on their feet. It's a whole underground community. They do it because it keeps them sober, too."

Ridgefield therapist Karen Walant, who wrote the book "Creating the Capacity for Attachment: Treating Addiction and the Alienated Self," will also be on the panel.

Walant cited research that suggests the brain releases chemicals when a person is in a highly attached relationship. These chemicals make people feel good, she said.

Addiction, on the other hand, is a "detachment disorder."

"When people are isolated, the brain stops releasing these bio-chemicals," she said. "It's like an opioid withdrawal, with real feelings of pain from not being connected to others."

Peer support can provide the attachment that releases the bio-chemicals and helps end the withdrawal symptoms.

At an AA meeting, when people share "their darkest emotions from the depth of their addiction, they get this release, this feeling, by getting peer support in reaction," Walant said.

And that, she said, allows people to overcome their addictions and stay sober and drug free.

The free program "Celebrating Recovery: The Power of Positive Peer Support" will be Monday, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road.